Currently home to the National Museum of the American Indian, a bankruptcy court, and the National Archives of New York, the opulent building receives little of the vast foot traffic passing through Bowling Green. Which is a pity, for inside is one of the most remarkable examples of the WPA murals born out of the Great Depression.
The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is a building in New York City built in 1902–07 by the federal government. It is located at 1 Bowling Green, near the southern tip of Manhattan, roughly on the same spot as Fort Amsterdam, the original center of the settlement of New Amsterdam. The building is now the home of the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian. Since 2012, it is also the home to the National Archives at New York City.
The building was designed by Minnesotan Cass Gilbert, who later designed the Woolworth Building. Constructed between 1902 and 1907, the building is considered to be a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style. It incorporates Beaux Arts and City Beautiful movement planning principles, combining architecture, engineering, and fine arts. Lavish sculptures, paintings, and decorations by well-known artists of the time embellish the facade.
Sculpture was so crucial to the scheme that the figure groups had independent contracts. The major work across the front steps, The Continents was contracted to French, with associate Adolph A. Weinman. Above the main cornice are standing sculptures representing the great seafaring nations. They representing American seagoing commerce as the modern heir of the Phoenicians.
The seven story Customs House contains 450,000 square feet of space and sits on three city blocks. It was richly decorated inside and out, including dozens of sculptures and carved images. The inspiration for the Custom House was derived from the Paris Opera House, the most important Beaux-Arts building of the period. In its heyday, the Custom House was a bustling place of activity as brokers and customs agents worked together building the wealth of nation.
The building sits on the site of Fort Amsterdam, the fortification constructed by the Dutch West India Company to defend their operations in the Hudson Valley. The fort became the nucleus of the New Amsterdam settlement, and in turn, of New York City. From 1799 to 1815, the first Custom House at this site was the Government House.
Magnificent in scale, detail and execution, Marsh’s murals show the golden age of New York’s harbor. Enormous steamliners dwarfing tugboats, automobiles being lowered onto docks, waterfronts bustling with stevedores, longshoremen, unending lines of immigrants, overshadowed by the dominating and ever-growing Manhattan skyline. New York’s time as one of the greatest port cities in the world has long since passed, and the U.S. Custom House vacated the beautiful building overlooking Bowling Green for 6 World Trade Centre in 1973. But visitors venturing inside the free museum will see a remarkable painted reminder of a vanished past.
Amazing Interior
Shells, marine creatures, and sea signs abound throughout the interior. As befits a tribute to New York’s preeminence as a seaport. Monumental arches and columns highlight the symmetry of the great hall.
Off this spectacular lobby is the ornate Collectors Reception Room. Its walls oak-paneled by the Tiffany Studios. The immense arch of the custom house’s magnificent elliptical rotunda was built according to the principles of Spanish-immigrant engineer Rafael Guastavino. The ingenious design allowed the rotunda’s 140-ton skylight to be constructed without visible signs of support.
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